An all-time favourite, with great soundtrack, wonderful “Monster from de Id” and a fetching Anne Francis as Altaira Morbius.
DOCTOR MORBIUS A cinematic
marvel for
One of the visual highlights of the ‘50s science fiction
the ages.
When an Earth mission arrives on Altair IV, they find that Dr. Edward Morbius and his beautiful daughter Altaira are the only survivors from the original expedition that had arrived some 20 years before. Morbius isn’t exactly pleased to see them and would have preferred that they not even land their spaceship. He does his best to get them on their way but Commander Abrams and his men soon face an invisible force leading them to believe that Morbius and the girl are in danger. Morbius claims to know nothing of other life on the planet but does reveal there once existed a far superior race, now extinct, that left a huge subterranean industrial and scientific complex
Sci-fi studies
SCI-FI HISTORY Star Trek
Science fiction is a bit difficult to define, as it includes a wide range of subgeneres and themes. Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty by stating that “sci-fi is what we point to when we say it”.
Gene Roddenberry 1966
Concept
This is the evolution of memorable sci-fi flicks.
The day the earth stood still Robert Wise 1951 Le voyage dans la lune Georges Méliès 1902
Metropolis Fritz Lang
James Whale
1931
Star Wars
Georges Lucas 1977
War of the Worlds Byron Haskin 1953
Ridley Scott 1982
Forbidden Planet Fred M. Wilcox 1956
This definition assumes that a continuum exists between empiricism and transcendentalism, with science fiction film on the side of empiricism, and horror film and fantasy film on the side of transcendentalism. However, there are numerous well-known examples of science fiction horror films, epitomized by such pictures as Frankenstein and Alien. The visual style of science fiction film can be characterized by a clash between alien and familiar images.
Scientific elements Blade Runner
1927
Frankenstein
Science fiction studies, are the critical assessment, interpretation, and discussion of science fiction literature, film, new media, fandom, and fan fiction. Science fiction studies has a long history dating back to the turn of the twentieth century, but it was not until later that science fiction studies solidified as a discipline with the publication of the academic journals.
Star Trek
Gene Roddenberry 1987
While science is a major element of this genre, many movie studios take significant liberties with scientific knowledge. can be most readily observed in films that show spacecraft maneuvering in outer space.
TECHNICAL FETURES The original 1952 screen treatment by Irving Block and Allen Adler was titled Fatal Planet; the screenplay by Cyril Hume was renamed Forbidden Planet because it was thought to have more box-office appeal. Block and Adler’s treatment took place in the year 1976 on the planet Mercury. An expedition headed by John Grant is sent to the planet to retrieve Dr. Adams and his daughter Dorianne, who have been stranded there for twenty years. The film sets were constructed at an MGM sound stage on the Culver City lot and were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arthur Longeran. The entire film was interior studio-bound, without any outdoor photography. All outdoor scenes were simulated with sets and visual effects.
A full-size mock up of three quarters of the C-57D was built to suggest its full width of 170 ft (51 m). This was made by a huge painted diorama of the desert landscape of Altair IV. This set took up all the space in a Culver City sound stage. This was the first film in which humans are depicted traveling in flying saucers of their own construction. The ship was reused in several episodes of the original Twilight Zone, which was also filmed at the MGM studios. At about $125,000, Robby the Robot was a very expensive film prop for the time. Robby was later featured in the film The Invisible Boy and appeared in numerous television series and movies. Like the C-57D, Robby (and his vehicle) appeared in episodes of Twilight Zone.
The animated sequences, especially the attack of the id monster, were created by veteran animator Joshua Meador, who was lent to MGM by Walt Disney Pictures. Curiously, shots showing the shape of the invisible monster outlined in the blaster beams were evidently removed from some prints shown on television — presumably because its appearance was considered too terrifying for younger viewers — and it was many years before these shots were restored. According to a “Behind the Scenes” feature on the DVD release, a close look at the creature shows it to have a small goatee beard, suggesting that it is connected to Dr. Morbius, the only character with this feature.
SPOILER ALTERT
SPOILER ALTERT
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s time to take this fabulous DVD, put it on your television and sit on your couch.
Did YOU WATCH THE MOVIE BEFORE? NOW IT’S TIME TO TAKE THIS EXTRA FEATURES DVD AND STILL ENJOYING THE ORIGINAL SCI-FI.
Read this booklet under your own risk, I won’t responsabilize of those spoilers.
AND PLEASE, DO NOT SPOILER ANYONE. THANK YOU.
CHARACTERS
CHARACTERS
Altaira Morbius was born on the planet Altair IV in the year 2203. Her mother died not long after her birth, following the mysterious mass deaths of nearly all of her co-workers.
Dr. Edward Morbius is a reclusive philologist whose IQ had been boosted by alien technology. He did only one invention, Robby the Robot.
Robby the Robot is probably the most iconic character in this movie, and the first servant robot ever thought. More details of this character will be exposed below.
Commander J. J. Adams is the main character of the United Planets Cruiser C-57D. He makes the most human part of this movie, by attending his thoughts and intuition.
CAST Walter Pidgeon Dr. Edward Morbius
Bob Dix Grey
Frankie Darro stunt performer inside Robby
Anne Francis Altaira “Alta” Morbius
Jimmy Thompson Youngerford
Marvin Miller voice of Robby
Leslie Nielsen Commander John J. Adams
James Drury Strong
Les Tremayne Narrator
Jack Kelly Lt. Jerry Farman
Harry Harvey, Jr. Randall
James Best C-57D crewman
Warren Stevens Lt. “Doc” Ostrow
Roger McGee Lindstrom
William Boyett C-57D crewman
Richard Anderson Lt. Quinn (ship’s engineer)
Peter Miller Moran
Earl Holliman “Cookie” (ship’s cook)
Morgan Jones Nichols
George Wallace the Bosun, Steve
Richard Grant Silvers
ROBOTS
ROBBY Date of Birth 1 July 1955 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Culver City, California, USA Height 6’ 11” (2.11 m)
Origin
Robby was the brainchild of, and designed by Robert Kinoshita, and built in mid-1955 by the MGM prop department, at a reported cost of $125,000.00 from blueprint plans provided by industrial designer, Robby appears in the epic science fiction classic Forbidden Planet (1956) and its B-movie followup The Invisible Boy (1957) a year later. Some would say he is the perfect realization of Isaac Asimov’s famous “Three Laws of Robotics”, which Azimov first promulgated in his 1950 story collection, I, Robot.
Convention icon
The Barton brothers completed their full-size replica of Robby in the spring of 1975, and celebrated by booking him at as many StarTrek and sci-fi conventions as they could. Robby is now owned by the top Forbidden Planet collector in the world, film director ‘Bill Malone’.
Inside Robby
Robby was originally operated by an MGM special effects technician named ‘Glen Robinson’ who subsequently worked on MGM’s Logan’s Run (1976). Maps of Mr. Robinson’s work can be seen in the next page.
▪ Forbidden Planet (1956) ▪ The Invisible Boy (1957) ▪ The Thin Man (1958) - season 1 episo ▪ The Gale Storm Show (1958) - season ▪ The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959 ▪ The Twilight Zone (1960s) ▪ Episode “Uncle Simon” ▪ Episode “The Brain Center at Whipp ▪ Episode “One for the Angels” (as a ti ▪ Hazel (1961-1966)- episode “Rosie’s C ▪ The Addams Family in the episode “ ▪ The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1966) ▪ Lost in Space (1966 and 1967) - in two ▪ The Monkees (1966-1968) - one episo ▪ The Banana Splits Adventure Hour ▪ Columbo (1974) - episode “Mind Ove ▪ Hollywood Boulevard (1976) ▪ Ark II (1976) ▪ Holmes and Yo-Yo (1976) ▪ Music Machine (1977)- a K-tel compi ▪ Project UFO (1978)- season 1 episode ▪ Wonder Woman (1979) - season 3 ep ▪ Mork & Mindy (1979) ▪ Space Academy (1979) - episode “My ▪ Charmin Television commercial (198 ▪ “Heavy Metal (film) (1981) - Selling a ▪ Night Stalker video game (1982) - fea ▪ IBM and Mac Nighstalker Ad ▪ The Love Boat - episode “Programme ▪ Gremlins (1984) ▪ the Fighting Fantasy gamebook seri ▪ Cherry 2000 (1987) ▪ Earth Girls Are Easy (1988) ▪ Space Quest (VGA Remake, 1991) - c ▪ Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom M ▪ Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003) ▪ The Simpsons ▪ “The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror ▪ “Mayored to the Mob” - “Danger Dan ▪ Stacked (2005) - as the Nightmare N ▪ Teen Titans (2005) - “Episode 257-49 ▪ Television commercial for AT&T (200
GOOFS • As the vehicle driven by the robot first drives up to the residence, there is a tow cable visible in the foreground, partially obscured by the bushes. This cable is most visible behind the vehicle as it leaves the scene. • As the tiger passes Altaira on the patio, first a portion of the tiger’s face, and then a portion of the tiger’s hind leg vanish in the split-screen effect. • Dr. Morbius invites Commander Adams to try his blaster on the Krell metal door. Cmdr. Adams inspects the result, but he’s not pointing to the spot where the beam hit. • During the landing scene, the shadow of the ship (or a supporting structure of the suspended model) is visible briefly moving across one of the smaller mountains at the right side of the screen.
MERCHANDISING •When Robby the Robot uses the blaster on the plant in the garden, an unidentifiable shadow suddenly appears on the green V support directly behind Commander. Adams. • When the ship’s cook is picked up by the magnetic crane, one of the wires that really picks him up is clearly visible. • In several wide shots of the crew members outside the ship, there is a faint vertical shadow visible on the painted backdrop behind the ship. It appears to be either a fold in a piece of fabric or the corner of the sound stage wall. •The star Altair is shown as an orangered star, eclipsed by one of its (spherical) planets. It is now known that Altair is white and is oblate, with its equatorial diameter 14% greater than its polar diameter, something that was not known when the movie was produced.
• As Altaira emerges from the swimming pool, the flesh-coloured suit that she is wearing to give the impression of nudity is visible. • The robot shows up carrying lead shielding, which he says is “isotope 217”, and he implies it is lighter than ordinary lead. The purported isotope lead-217 does not exist, and if it did, it would be 4% heavier than the most common (and heaviest) isotope of lead (number 208), not lighter. • Plot holes: Robby the Robot informs the crew that if they do not speak English, he is at their disposal with “187 languages”; yet, he says it all in English. If the crew did not speak English, how could they know what he was saying?
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